A month ago, I noted with alarm that Landon Donovan, the greatest soccer player to play for the U.S. national team, appeared to spend a lot of time walking during a Galaxy game in Tijuana.

Which led me to wonder if he were pacing himself … or carrying an injury.

And it may have been both. Pacing and injury.

Donovan today told ESPN that his poor form recently — he does not have a goal in four Galaxy games so far this season — could be a function of age, suggesting he no longer can go all out at every practice session as well as every match.

Landon is 32, which is quickly approaching “old” for an attacking player in the modern era, which emphasizes running and more running and then some sprinting. While opponents are sticking a foot in their path.

Defenders can make it to 35 without much problem. Keepers can go to 40.

But forwards and midfielders … 32 represents thousands of training sessions and hundreds of matches, and a lot of wear and tear on bodies and, generally, a clear decline in overall fitness. (Landon has had nagging issues with a knee and an ankle for the past few years.)

At times, we have wondered if the U.S. national team coach Jurgen Klinsmann just likes playing mind games with Landon. Not playing him here or there. Sending him off to play with the B team in the Gold Cup last year and missing World Cup qualifiers.

And whether Landon’s resistance to relentlessly currying Klinsmann’s favor (being honest, basically) has annoyed the coach because many coaches demand respect before earning it.

But of late, it was hard to argue with Landon coming off the bench in, say, the recent friendly with Mexico. It was hard to defend him starting ahead of a Graham Zusi. (As astounding as that sounds, to anyone who has followed U.S. soccer the past dozen years.)

But here is what Landon told ESPN:

“When I’m [with the national team], I still feel like I’m one of the best players, and that I can still contribute in a big way. I can’t do it every day in training. That’s why leading up to the Mexico game, when I don’t train well for a couple of days, alarm bells probably go off in Jurgen’s head. But I know myself, and I know when game day comes, I know how to perform.”

I can attest to the fact that Landon has been very concerned about his fitness for most of a decade.

Whenever we arranged a one-on-one interview, in the years before leaving for the UAE, I waited for him to complete a post-practice regimen of stretching and massage — a process which lasted at least an hour. (And a regimen that included careful attention to diet — something I always meant to write about but never actually did.)

Talking 2008 here and, especially, 2009, after he came back from the loan to Bayern Munich — where he was pretty much told that he was too old (at 27) to be of interest to the German club.

I would guess Landon knows best what he can make his body do, in his 30s. And it is not what he did a decade before.

That leads to pacing himself. Which probably increases the odds of him getting to June (and the World Cup) without a major breakdown.

The question, then, becomes … does Jurgen Klinsmann grasp this? Does he accept the idea that a Landon who can’t turn it on day after day early in a year … can find a way to be at 100 percent in Brazil? Or will he write off a man who has been the best footballer in American history because he isn’t sharp in April?

Now we wait.